


Firewall

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: The Winged Jedi [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-14 22:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13599273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: He didn't care. He didn't care if he looked like a fool. It'd been so long, he needed to let her know how grateful he was that she's alive. The rebels won't understand, and neither will the brothers that are with her, but he knows someone looking for him that just might.





	Firewall

Ezra and Kanan stood on the platform, doing their best not to lean over the railing in their rampant curiosity. What was this Firebird and how could it have possibly appeared in the desert without them having seen it on entry? Not to mention that those drop ships looked like the old Republic ones, not Imperial. 

Rex had hopped over the railing as soon as the flying blur swung around and took off towards them. Wolffe looked a little nervous, but Gregor had a soft smile on his face. 

"Rex seems excited to see Firebird." Ezra commented. Gregor chuckled good-naturedly. 

"You could say that. Out of everyone in the war, she's the one he's been missing the most."

"What happened to her?"

"No one really knows. The rumour was that the Seps created a localized wormhole and fired it on her. It took her and her primary company with her. By the time the secondary company arrived, the wormhole was closed and there was no sign of her or the ships. She was presumed dead, along with her company and commander."

Kanan shot up straight. "Wait, she's a Jedi?"

Gregor grinned secretively and turned his gaze back out on the rapidly approaching blur. 

The raptor pulled up short, the huge wingspan pushing up enough air to knock Sabine back into Zeb. The feet that touched down, however, were light and the wings collapsed neatly against the back of . . . 

"Master Kenobi." Kanan breathed, awe mixed with horror in his voice. 

"Kenobi? Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Ezra asked, but no one was paying him any attention. 

"Out of all the clones to find in a repurposed AT-TE out in the middle of the desert, why am I not surprised it's you, Rex?" She grinned, shaking her head. "Though, if I recall correctly, Reitein was a prairie world, not desert."

Rex didn't answer. Instead, he covered the remaining distance and pulled the avian Jedi into a fierce hug. She gasped in surprise, but wrapped her arms around him too, smiling to herself as she pressed her cheek to his helmet.

"What did I do to deserve a welcome like that?" She asked after he released her. 

Rex pulled off his helmet, desperately wiping the tears from his eyes. "You survived, General. Merciful Force, you actually survived."

The shock she was feeling was well hidden. She cupped his face with both hands, wiping away stray tears with her thumbs and looking closely over his face. 

"Oh, Rex." Sympathy echoed in the Force and Kanan flinched. "My dear, what happened to you?"

The drop ships pulled up and settled in a perimeter around the tank. Kanan stiffened, but Gregor shook his head. 

"I wouldn't reach for the 'saber if I were you. These are the proper 212th. A youngling like you won't make it on them."

Kanan met his gaze. "I know. My master didn't either."

Gregor shrugged. "I never shot a Jedi, not even you. Stop trying to blame me for it."

The interior-facing doors opened and out spilled dozens upon dozens of yellow-painted clone troopers. One in particular walked right up to Kenobi and Rex, pulling off his helmet. 

"Sir?" He asked. 

"Cody, what time does the ship's data log say we have?" 

He checked his communicator. "We were supposed to hit the LZ three hours ago."

Rex hiccuped a laugh. "So time really is relative." 

Kenobi shifted to the right and for the first time in almost twenty years, Cody and Rex looked each other in the eye.

"Woah."

Rex snorted another laugh. "Yeah, you could say that."

Cody's eyes blew wide. "No, no, I just-" He sighed. "The General and I were talking about what she would look like as a man. She said she would want a beard. I find it kind of funny that you have one now."

Kenobi looked up for the first time and Ezra was struck uncharacteristically shy. He'd never been in the Temple, had been born after the fall of the Jedi Order. But even he knew her name. He was standing in the presence of a legend. Apparently he wasn't the only one feeling it, though, because Kanan shifted backwards when she turned her gaze on him. 

"Caleb."

Kanan recoiled, fear clouding his aura in the Force. 

Kenobi's eyes narrowed. "Yes. Caleb Dume. I remember Depa talking about you. She was watching you as a youngling."

"You knew Master Billiba?"

"Of course. We were yearmates. We used to go out for lunch every Wednesday, before the war, that is." She cocked her head, assessing him with narrowed eyes. 

Ezra gasped, hands flying up to his chest and eyes widening in surprise. "I felt that! Wow!"

Kenobi's gaze switched to him and immediately softened. "Have you never felt an aura projection, young one?"

He shook his head, no longer nervous in the face of his curiosity. "Kanan, can you do that too?"

He looked away, scowling sharply. " . . . No."

"Its a skill your Master is to teach you on the path to Knighthood." She explained. 

The clone commander, Cody, looked at the younger man. "Doesn't look like he's much of a Jedi."

"Likely left the Order." She replied quietly. 

"There wasn't an Order for me to leave after your precious Chosen One got done with it." Kanan snapped back, harsh and bitter. 

Kenobi stood, defensive. "Anakin?"

The ex-Padawan snorted. "He goes by Darth Vader now."

She shook her head. "No, that's not possible. Anakin is one of the most protective and caring people I know. He isn't that greedy."

Rex lowered his head, voice leaden with grief. "He didn't turn for greed, General. He did it to find you."

Kanan was sure she was going to fall to her knees, beg for it not to be true. The feeling was there in her eyes. The clones, behind her, shifted uncomfortably. Cody kept his gaze attentively on her, waiting for orders or to catch her, it was hard to tell. 

Her voice was surprisingly hard and commanding, making the clones, including Rex, stand straighter. "Tell me everything, in as much detail as you can remember."

* * *

Ezra walked up to Cody, standing next to the man on top of the tank a little nervously. 

"They've, uh, been in there a long time."

Cody looked down at him, then gave a soft little smile. "General Kenobi is a tactician down to her bones. She likes to be very thorough. Helps ease her mind when she feels helpless."

"Helpless?" He looked down at a tap to his boot, finding a bald clone with a sol patch grinning up at him. 

"Yeah, kiddo. General Skywalker and the 501st were always paired up with us. She practically raised him."

"Oh." He felt immediately worse for her. "She'll be taking this pretty hard, then."

"Yeah, but she's made of durasteel." Cody said, surety in his tone. "I've seen her swallow down her pain after massacres and soldier on. There's not a stronger woman in the galaxy."

Waxer laughed. "Don't let Bly catch you saying that."

Cody snorted. "I've seen the two spar. Those wings are something you don't want to come up against."

Waxer waggled his eyebrows. "Personal experience, Commander."

"Get your jealous ass and dirty mind away from the youngling. You know the General won't appreciate you gossiping."

"What does he mean?" Ezra asked, looking up innocently at the elder clone. 

"General Kenobi and I have been working together for a long time. We're very close."

Waxer snorted, but refrained from any more lewd commenting. 

Ezra fell sombre once more. "Kanan's in there with them . . . Do you think they'll start fighting?"

"I don't know how your friend reacts, but from what I've seen of him, he will find himself in a difficult position with the General."

"What do you mean?"

"She's a Jedi to her core. Every principle she adheres to in her heart and soul." Cody softened his gaze, trying to be considerate of the kid's feelings. "You friend doesn't seem to emulate that much."

"Kanan can be rough, but he ultimately means well."

"To mean well does not necessarily mean to do well." Waxer replied, gentle and sympathetic like he had been with the Twi'lek girl now painted on his helmet. 

"I don't want them to fight. Master Kenobi is a great Jedi. I hope we can both learn something from her." The kid ducked his head down, as if in trouble. 

"Kenobi has that kind of impression." Waxer assured. "She's a natural teacher and she's not one to let people down."

"How much longer do you think they'll be in there?"

"Until they're done." Cody said, tone decisive. 

Ezra shrunk away from the authority inherent there, but Waxer offered a kind hand. The youngling took it, hopping off the tank to go join the ranks of uniformly-faced men sitting around a small fire, cleaning their weapons, checking the fuel gauges and laughing at each other's jokes.

Cody stood stop the platform, looking over them, but illuminated coldly by the moon instead of the warmth of the fire. He wondered what these revelations had in store for Ghost Company, what they meant for all the years they had missed in a stop-gap of three hours. 

He wondered what it meant for the fragile heart of his Jedi, one who gives everything she has, even things she can't get back.

* * *

When Kanan walked back out onto the tank platform, he found Cody in the same spot he had been when he'd gone inside with Kenobi. The Master was still inside with Rex, talking about General Amidala and the scattered remains of free clones across the galaxy to his knowledge. But Kanan couldn't deal with it anymore. She was so concerned with these bloody clones that she couldn't see the monsters in waiting, just outside their doors, surrounding them on all sides. 

There was a fire still crackling, but it had burned down appropriately with the encroaching early hours of morning. Two or three clones, guns at their sides, were sitting atop the gunships and watching the desert. Most of the troopers were laying or sitting in piles, resting peacefully with their helmets piled off to one side. One clone was sitting next to the fire, poking at the flame to keep it alive with some of the unburned tinder. He had their standard haircut, but a neat beard around his mouth. A bald clone with a goatee was sleeping next to him with his head on his thigh, arm wrapped protectively around a snoozing Ezra. 

Kanan bit back a curse. The boy was far too trusting. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the clone commander, who was still standing in the same position they had left him in - straight-backed with his helmet resting between his feet. Unlike the other clones, white armour reflecting the firelight, the commander was bathed only in the blue-white of Seelos' moon, the colouring making him look colder, more dangerous than the other men in their scattered piles. 

The commander paid him no attention, simply watching over his men. 

"Don't you need sleep?" Kanan asked, tentative to break the soft silence. 

"I've been General Kenobi's Commander long enough that I no longer remember what it means to be rested." He replied. 

"What do you mean?"

"There are only three designated attack battalions. The 212th, the 327th and the 501st. These men are part of Ghost Company, the company that runs specifically with General Kenobi and myself. The General and I are the only ones with the authority to handle the logistics of running the 212th and have the necessary commission to issue orders. Three hours is the most I've seen her sleep of her own volition. If she needs to rest, she meditates. It allows her body to recover, but she continues to plan strategies and think over tactics and unit placements. I do my best to keep up with her and have since graduated to needing only four hours of sleep. In a hot zone, I can go up to six days without sleeping and still remain completely functional."

"That's insane."

"The General augments herself with the Force. I've seen her run three weeks without sleeping, even once." The commander shook his head. "She ran headlong into a nest of tanks with three broken ribs. I swear Helix was going to cry when he found out she was on the front lines with us."

"Why would she do that?" He muttered in disbelief.

"Because it was her duty."

"War isn't a Jedi's way."

The commander finally looked over at him, amber gaze level and neutral. "You don't know what being a Jedi means."

"Oh, and as a clone, you would?" He snarled back. 

"I've spent years under her direct command. I know the way both she and General Skywalker think. If they aren't true Jedi, I don't care to meet any other kind."

He held back a biting insult, trying to contain himself and knowing it was only prolonging the problem. 

"Remember, an army is built on trust in your superior officer and faith in the command structure. If one of those fails, the army falls apart." The commander said, watching Ezra turn about to snuggle into Waxer's collarbone. "Ghost Company and the 212 are strong because she inspires faith and breeds trust."

He rolled his eyes, already tired from all of Kenobi's side-eyeing in the tank's main hall. "And how does she do that?"

"She's a peacekeeper - like the Jedi are supposed to be - and doesn't delight in carnage or battle. All the men know this. They know that she won't put them in unnecessary danger or waste their lives."

"Maybe if she had been around for what followed, she would think differently."

To his utter bafflement and subsequent horror, the commander actually laughed. "Better not let her hear you saying that."

"So what if she did?"

Those amber eyes were cold this time, like dyed ice even above the teasing grin. "She learned from Maul where to aim her 'saber."

 


End file.
